The subject invention relates generally to the monitoring and verification of firing sequence in multistage pulse power systems and more particularly to such monitoring and verification in the highly contaminated electromagnetic interference environment generated by large, high-frequency pulsing systems.
Pulse power systems in research and industrial environments are becoming larger and more complex. As size and voltage increase, the number of triggered stages increases. Many processes, e.g., lasers, accelerators, test pulsers, and fusion development systems, require coordinated or repeated firing of large numbers of pulse power systems. Stages within these pulse power systems and multiple pulse power systems interact with each other through conducted and radiated electromagnetic interference causing the probability of prefire to increase. The large number of gaps and triggering devices in large systems also increases the chance of prefire. Presently, prefires in pulse power systems are located by firing various combinations of trigger stages or combination of pulsers. This is a long and tedious process, since prefires usually do not occur on each operation cycle.
Further complicating prefire location identification in present pulse systems is the fact that the characteristics of the triggering signals may vary greatly. A typical pulse system to be monitored by the present invention may include triggering signals ranging from 4 to 1000 amperes and having pulse widths from nanoseconds to microseconds.